SFO: A 1927 Cow Pasture, Runways 750 Feet Apart and a Therapy Pig

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San Francisco International Airport is not in San Francisco: it sits in unincorporated San Mateo County, on what began in 1927 as Mills Field, a 150-acre experimental pasture leased from the Mills estate. The city bought the land in 1930, expanded it to about 1,100 acres, and renamed it San Francisco Airport in 1931. In 1944, with the Navy holding Treasure Island, Pan Am moved its Pacific flying boat service there, and overseas growth added "International" to the name. SFO installed one of the first U.S. jetway bridges in July 1959 and opened a 450-foot moving walkway in May 1964, then the longest in the world. Its defining problem is its parallel runways 28L and 28R, only 750 feet apart.

In the late 1990s planners proposed filling up to two square miles of the bay for runways 4,300 feet apart, offering to restore 29,000 acres of Cargill salt ponds in exchange. Environmental groups led by the Sierra Club fought the plan and it was shelved. On March 31, 2026 the FAA permanently banned side-by-side visual landings there, cutting peak arrivals from 54 an hour to 36, a 33 percent drop, with officials expecting a quarter of arrivals to run at least 30 minutes late. Unable to grow outward, SFO has rebuilt inward, from a quake-isolated international terminal to an accredited museum and therapy animals.

• The International Terminal, opened in December 2000, was built as the world's largest building on base isolators.
• Terminal 2 opened in 1954, became the international terminal in 1983, sat as offices for over a decade, and reopened as a domestic hub in 2011.
• SFO Museum began in 1980 and in 1999 became the first museum in an international airport accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
• The Wag Brigade of therapy dogs started in December 2013, joined in 2016 by LiLou, a pig with painted nails.
• Terminal 1 became the Harvey Milk Terminal, and a Terminal 3 West overhaul is slated to finish in 2029.